Mastering the Valley: Completed

Chapter 67: Court

"Sensei." Hawk says.
"What the hell?" he says.
Hawk looks to me, then back. He has a look of fear, despair, and confusion on his face.
"I- I can explain." I say, getting off of the table.
Sensei Lawrence shuts the door behind him and looks to both of us.
"I don't know what you two were fixing to do in here.. but from the looks of it-" he glances at both of us and sighs, "...it doesn't look good. You two could have gotten caught by someone else, or maybe could've even got into big trouble."
"Sensei-" Hawk says.
"We can deal with this later, but right now... if you haven't forgotten, you have a court case to win." Sensei Lawrence says, grabbing my hand. "Let's go win this thing."
    We walk into the court room and there are lights everywhere. I look down because I don't want my face all over the media.
    I am in a courtroom, but in my head I'm still in that janitor closet with Hawk. My legs curled around his waist, pulling his body towards mine. Our lips so close that it took my breath away.
   *sigh*
  Just leave it alone Kate, just leave it alone.
  "Where did you two go?" Samantha whispers to me.
  "Don't worry about it." I whisper back.
"Oh my god, are you two back together?" she asks in a soft tone.
   I don't know... are we? Were we reconnecting as a couple or were we just caught up in the moment? I have a million thoughts stuck in my head but right now I need to focus.
   "All rise." Someone says, I stand up.
  It's time. I look around the court room and see so many cameras on me. I feel so nervous, my palms are sweating and my heart is pounding.
  I look off to the distance and stay there until I hear this little sentence.
  "I call Katelyn Salvatore to the stand."
  I come back to reality and realize that it's go time. It's the time I have been waiting for. The time to put them away.
   I go up to the witness stand and sit down, this police officer brings a Bible and holds it in front of me.
  "Please place your hand onto the Bible and repeat after me."
   I lift my hand, which is covered with sweat from my body and place it onto the Bible gently.
  "I swear to the Almighty God that I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." he says.
   I repeat those words back to him, thinking about what each vowel means... the whole truth. NOTHING but the truth. No sugarcoating this story, every detail matters.
"Permission to approach the stand." says the attorney.
"Permission is granted." the judge says.
This attorney is wearing a black suit, his hair is a walnut brown. He is speaking for the men who abused me.
I watch as he walks towards me.
"Miss...?"
"Salvatore." I say.
"Miss Salvatore, what all do you remember from the abduction."
"Every single thing or just a summary?"
"Every single detail." the attorney says.
"I was in the car with my friends and we had a disagreement. The argument made me upset and I had the driver pull over and got out of the car. I was going to walk back to our karate dojo alone and then these people jumped out of this van and took me."
"How many men do you remember seeing?"
  "There was three men who abducted me, but when I woke up in the building there were four."
   "Can you describe the interior of the building to me?"
  "There were faded brown walls, a bunch of weaponry hung on the walls-"
  "What kind of weapons?" he asks.
"I honestly don't remember. There was a whip though."
   "Was it possibly this whip?" he asks, pulling out an image of the whip that was used on me, the blood still on it. The image must have been taken directly after it happened.
   "Yes sir, that's it." I say, dropping my head.
"Thank you." he says, walking back to his desk.
Why would he ask those questions.. I mean it doesn't sound like he was really getting down to anything.
   Our attorney gets up and walks towards me.
  "You described what happened before you woke up in the building, what happened when you woke up?"
  "I woke up and then one of the men held a gun at my head, telling me to do what he said. I did what any human would do and remembered my place." I look to the jury then look back to the attorney. "I then heard two men have an argument about these weird nicknames they wanted to be called."
"Do you remember what they were?" my attorney asks.
"I remember the words 'Biggie' and 'Lil Cricket'."
  "Do you remember their faces?"
"How can I forget them." I say, my innocence stripped away.
  "Is the men that abused you the men sitting in those chairs?" he says, turning and pointing at the men at the table.
   Oh my god. It's them. I look at them in fear.
"Miss Salvatore?"
   The man with the face tattoo. He is the one who held a gun at my head.
   I am paralyzed with fear.
"Kate." he whispers.
   I am starring at them, and they are starring at me. My face turns pale white and my body is stuck. I can't move, I can't speak.
  "Katelyn." he whispers, then I feel something touching my arm and I jump.
  "DON'T TOUCH ME." I yell.
  I look around and there are people staring at me in every direction.
  My face goes from pale to rose red. I feel embarrassed and uncomfortable at the same time. I get out of the stand and I run to the door. I run as far as I can away from the courtroom. I see the bathroom in the corner of my eye and run inside, I then go to the farthest stall and lift my legs. I have my knees to my head and I'm shackled down by fear.
   "Kate?" I hear someone ask.